Land Boom Leftover

By spring of 1888 the southern California land boom was over.  Investors regretted the lack of industry and cultivated crops.  Orange groves had been neglected in hopes of selling town lots.  Municipal services like water, sewage, roads and schools couldn't keep up with the rapid growth.  The boom began to leave ghost towns,  but there was something left - at least for a period of time.

The University of Southern California was founded in 1879 as a read estate endowment.  Two years later it became the University of California at Los Angeles, followed by Whittier College which was a product of the developer of the town of Whittier.  Occidental College was found in 1887 as a Presbyterian institution.  Tuition was $50 a year.  The college was advertised as combining real estate and education.  A portion of the land was sold for development of homes, ranging from $300-$500.  "Rich soil and pure air.  No better place in the state for a home" wrote the President of the college in an advertisement.

The boom proved the power of advertising and the willingness of American to believe anything that was presented well and repeated often enough.  Newspapers flourished.  San Diego boasted five newspaper for a population of 20,000 people.  Every boom town had a newspaper of its own no matter what the size.

One of the sad results of the California boom was the loss of Spanish heritage. By the end of the boom in the 1880s  much of the Spanish influence in southern California had become merely an advertising slogan.  Place names hinted at a rich history, but the missions were gone as were the ranches.  Just as the boom changed California, the pattern traveled cross-country to reappear some 40 years later.

Next time...1920s Florida




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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 9, 1776, Congress formerly declares the new nation to be the "United States" of America, replacing the term "United Colonies."  

Successful Boom Cities

One of the most successful Boom towns was Monrovia in the San Gabriel Valley.  Monrovia was named after its founder, a railroad construction engineer who had laid out 60 acres in 1886.  In May of 1887 auctions sold inside town lots, 50 feet by 160 feet. for $100.  Corner lots went for $150.  By November of that year the population of the town was already 500, the town was incorporated and two hotels were built out of necessity.  By the year end, corner lots were selling for $800.  Within a year the town had to hire a garbage collector for $5 and in two years the population was doubled.

Advertising made up for what the actual land lacked.  For example, a group of businessmen bought 4,000 acres of an old ranch in December of 1886.  They plotted the town and began selling lots.  The good land was sold as agricultural farms, the town site was on sand, gravel and boulders.  The promoter was questioned as to why the town was built on the poor land to which he answered, "If it is not good for a town, it isn't good for anything."

This town proved to be better than the promoter ever imagined.  Advertising campaigns attracted buyers to stand in line all night awaiting the opening of the sale the next morning.  Nearly half of the town lots were sold in the first three days for from $500-$1000 each lot.  At the end of two months, the promoter made a profit of $1,775,000!

Pasadena was another successful boom town. It was founded by a group from Indiana in 1874 and was still just a village six years later.  When the Santa Fe Railroad come through in 1885, the first hotel, the Raymond Hotel was completed and brought more than 35,000 guests in its first two years.  Two more hotels were needed to be built.  The town had 53 real estate agencies just 12 years after its beginning.  The population was now 6,000 people and a $100,000 opera house was in the works.  Pasadena was a growing boom town metropolis.

Next boom universities...
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 5, 1836, Sam Houston was elected as president of the Republic of Texas, which earned its independence from Mexico after a successful military rebellion which he took a major part in.

California Goes Boom!

In the 1880s there was a California land boom - long after Sutter's Farm was just a piece of history.  Los Angeles was a place of "pure air" as one brochure boasted.  It was remote from civilized disease,, and the perfect place to recover from tuberculosis.  According to the brochure, the number of persons "killed by snakes, poisonous reptiles, and dangerous animals was less that the number of persons killed by lightning in the eastern states."

That's how the California land boom began.  Boom came to mean a sudden increase in prosperity and values.  Boosters referred to city builders loyal to one place.  Boomers, however were a large part speculators, risk takers, someone who sought profit in the short term.  Boomers knew it couldn't last so they "got while the getting was good" usually by separating others from their money.

The California land boom became the prototype and pattern of all other later land booms to follow.  It was the Sutter's Gold Rush of the 19th century.  Vast ranches were broken up and then broken up again into smaller farms.  The Southern Pacific Railroad created a winter resort area and brought people to places like LA, Santa Barbara and San Diego.  By the 1880s the railroad fare from Kansas City to southern California was just $1. 

Los Angeles was the center of the spreading enthusiasm.  Railroad cars arrived loaded with prospective buyers.  The auctions featured brass bands and free lunches - all to stir the people to buy desert tracts of land in 25 foot lots.  There was more than 2,000 real estate agents in Los Angeles alone.  In a single year these agents sold over $100,000 worth of real estate.  The number of new subdivisions in the years 1886-88 totaled 1700.  Real estate prices skyrocketed.  Property worth $11,000 one year sold for $80,000 the next year. 

The year 1887 was the climax year for the boom with 80,000 new residents and over $100,000 worth of land sold in just six months.  The California boom reached to the Pacific Ocean, north to Santa Barbara, south to San Diego and inland along the railroad lines.  Everyone wanted to get rich off of California. 

Next time...Successful "boom towns"
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 2, 1969, the first ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) made its public debut at the Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.  ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry and became a part of our daily lives.  

A Happy Ending

Despite San Francisco' shady beginnings, the new money elite began to want respectability, especially as the free spending gold rushers began to thin out and disappear.  They wanted to restrict "unseemly" activities to specific sections of town, far from the eyes of "proper" folks and impressionable children.  Schools and churches were planned and built, the streets were cleaned up and law and order was established.

By 1859 San Francisco was a premier city of the Far West.  Richard Henry Dana expressed his amazement upon the arrival of his second visit to the city after 20 years, "When I look out my windows in the morning over the city, with its storehouses, towers, steeples, court houses, theaters, hospitals...its daily journals, well filled professionals...when I look across the bay and behold the steamers, the freighters, passenger carriers...I can scarcely keep my hold on reality at all."

San Francisco had become the focus of dreams in the late 1840...at first the gaudy brothels, lively gambling halls and elegant mansions rising out of the hills.  After all the gold was panned and spent, society changed.  San Francisco became a city of respectable businesses, lawful government and a place to raise a family.  The transformation was completed in less than 10 years, leaving behind a city risen from the muddy flats of the 1840s to becomes one of the great American cities in the West.

Next time...another place, another rush.
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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 20, 1969m at 10:56 pm, Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  Stepping off the lunar landing module, Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon."

The Rip-Roaring Mining Camps

Mark Twain once said of the Gold Rush days,

"the only population of the kind the world has ever seen.  Two hundred thousand young men, not simpering, dainty...weaklings, but stalwart, muscular, dauntless young braves...the very pick and choice of the world's glorious ones."

The gold mining camps, stretched 200 miles along the Sierras' western slopes.  The men were determined to strike it rich and spent long hours in freezing rivers just for an ounce or more often nothing at all.  They formed partnerships to build dams and divert streams for easier access.

Surprisingly, many were well-to-do men lured by the adventure as much as by the gold, but most came to escape poverty and make a better life for their families.  Tensions ran high - a small disagreement over a card game could result in a gun battle, disputes over ownership of an ounce of gold dust often ended in a bloody brawl.

In the early days these all male societies where there were no preachers, mothers, wives or teachers, became a haven for profanity, vulgarity and crude behavior.  The camps began to support a floating population of professional gamblers, barkeepers, con artists and prostitutes.  Lynch law was the only law, and lawbreakers were either hanged or whipped on the flimsiest of evidence.

All foreigners were banned in most camps.  Mexican "greasers" were despised and their claims ignored.  The Chinese worked camps abandoned by whites and were made to fight as entertainment with medieval lances and swords.  Sometimes anti-foreign sentiment was based on genuine corncern as when an absentee capitalist hired low wage labor to earn him a fortune, or slaves were forced to work for their owners - in Free California territory. 

Gradually the wild camps were deserted with the men moving on to Nevada or settling down in the coastal towns.  A few got rich, the majority were as poor as when they came. For a time the Gold Rush had a society all its own in American history.

Next time...The Babylon of the Pacific
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 13, 1866, construction began on Fort Kearny the most important outpost guarding the Bozeman Trail, named after John Bozeman who blazed a trail off the Oregon Trail through Montana in 1863.

Gold Rush Fever Economy Style

Those gold rushers who could not afford ship's passage or preferred solid ground had a choice of several overland trails.  One began at Fort Smith, Arkansas through Santa Fe and the Arizona deserts.  Lack of water and temperatures around 110 degrees cracked wheel axles and killed oxen, leaving those Argonauts to wander on foot, leaving their bones to bleach in the desert.

Not much easier but by far more popular were the Mormon and Oregon Trails over the Rockies directly to Sacramento.  Originating in Independence, Missouri (now Council Bluffs) this journey required waiting for spring before departure.  Most wagon trains heading out had actual bodies of government assigned (even legislatures) to enforce law and order on the journey.  Wet weather plagued many gold rush trains, making trails muddy bogs, sinking wagons wheels and making travel impossible.  Cholera epidemics took 5,000 Argonaut lives.  By the end of 1849, the trails were littered with cemeteries and gravesites.  Later travelers west used the abandoned junk like rusted old stoves, left on the trail as route markers to California.

One prospector's journey is recorded in 1849 "For miles an animated mass of beings broke upon our view.  Long trains of wagons with their white covers were moving slowly along...in a few moments we took our station in line, a component part of the motley throng of gold seekers who were leaving home and friends far behind to encounter peril of mountain and plain."  -  Alonzo Delano 1854 Life on the Plains.  .

So it seems that no matter which method you used to get to the gold in California, it was not a sure thing! One was more expensive than most Argonauts could afford, one was almost sure a death sentence from tropical disease, and finally the one affordable was a trial of the elements that could end in your death anyway!  Makes you think that the gold might not have been worth the trip?!

Next time...those rip-roaring gold camps
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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 10, 1889, In a drunken rage, “Buckskin” Frank Leslie murders his lover, the Tombstone prostitute Blonde Mollie Williams. Leslie was an ill-tempered and violent man, especially when he drank. He told conflicting stories about his early life. At times, he said he was from Texas, at other times from Kentucky, claimed he had been trained in medicine and pharmacy, and he even boasted that he had studied in Europe. He earned the nickname “Buckskin” while working as an Army Scout in the Plains Indian Wars. None of his assertions can be confirmed in the historical record.

The Coming of the Argonauts

Argonauts - from Greek mythology for those after the Golden Fleece - was a name given to the gold seekers in American history, those first prospectors who had half a chance of making a decent living.  The dry beds and waters of the American River were rich in gold, the foothills of the Sierras, although less accessible, had much more.  Many of these early Argonauts made thousands of dollars in just a few months.  Even the moderately lucky averaged $20 a day - a healthy pay for common workers back in those times. 

Much of what the Argonauts earned, however, went for necessities, from people like Sam Brannan (see previous post) at exorbitant prices. In August of 1849 one miner wrote home, "Salt Pork here in San Francisco sell for $.75 a pound, at the mines it is $200 a barrel.  Flour $2 a pound, potatoes $30 a bushel.  A ship load of potatoes would bring two hundred thousand dollars!"  It was far easier to make a living servicing those panning for gold than it was to join them.  Collis Huntington, railroad magnate, started his first million by buying iron bars at $20 a ton and selling them to miners at $1 a pound.

In 1849 California's population rose from 20,000 to more than 100,000.  By 1852, less than 3 years later, it was more than double to 225.000 and California became a state.  Almost all of those were male, and almost all of those were Argonauts. 

Most migrants came by sea from the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts on a 17,000 mile journey around Cape Horn in 6 months.  If they preferred to sail to Panama, they could travel overland to the Pacific Coast, board another ship bound for San Francisco in 6 weeks. The problem was most of those never made it via Panama where the overland jungle route struck down most with malaria, yellow fever and cholera.  Cape Horn was safer but became more expensive as demand rose. 

Those who could not afford  to go by ship chose another avenue, which we will see next time...

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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 6, 1862, writing under the name of Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens begins publishing news stories in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.

Gold Rush Entrepreneur - Sam Brannan

The carrier of the gold fever was one Sam Brannan, merchant, newspaper owner and a leader in the California Mormon church.  Less "saintly" in practice than in preaching, he had quarreled with Brigham Young more than once which led to his eventual excommunication from the church for refusing to turn over his share of gold to the Mormons.

Brannon was not a prospector, per se.  He saw his future in supplies - picks, shovels, pans, coffee, food.  He could sell these at exorbitant prices as the first merchant in the gold fields.  So in 1848, Brannan went to Sutter's Mill to check out the gold stories and was convinced the rumors were true.  He returned to San Francisco with a sample of gold and a loud voice. 

Brannan went through the streets shouting "Gold! Gold!" and showing off his sample.  People, who had before thought it all a crazy story, were now packing up for the trip within a day.  Within two weeks, San Francisco was a ghost town as everyone who could walk had gone to Sutter's, including Brannan who was there to greet them with all the supplies they needed.

By summer all the towns in southern California contained no adult males in residence.  The situation was something the US Army could not discipline as one soldier said, "The struggle between right for $6 a month and wrong for $75 a day is rather a severe one."

The hysteria spread to Hawaii, around the Cape Horn and back to the East Coast where President Polk addressed Congress in December 1848 to give credence to the gold rumors.  Two days later 230 ounces of gold were placed on public display in Washington.  From Boston to St. Louis, from Florida to Minnesota thousands were dreaming of the wealth of El Dorado and the greatest rush in American history had begun.

Next time - Meet the Argonauts
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 3,  1890, Idaho, the last of the 50 states to be explored by whites, is admitted to the Union.

The Riches and Ruin of John Sutter

A whisper among a small party of laborers building a sawmill 40 miles from Sutter's Fort started one of the most wild and crazy events in American history...

The men under supervision of carpenter James Marshall had been working through 1847 beside the south forth of the American River in California.  On January 23, 1848, Marshall decided to make one of his periodic tests of the millrace by letting the sluice gates open all night and allowing the river water to run through. The following morning he noticed tiny yellow specks at the bottom of the millrace.  He made a few simple tests and was convinced he had found gold.

A workman on the site made a note, "Monday 24th -- this day some kind of mettle was found in the tail race that looks like gould first discovered by James Martial." 

Four days later Marshall visited Sutter's Fort and broke the news.  More tests confirmed the gold, but John Sutter was not happy.  He had build a Baron like feudal domain in the heart of California and his word was law.  He was wealthy, satisfied and had no desire to change his easy life.  He knew if word got out his kingdom would be invaded by hordes of prospectors who would destroy his land.

Sutter had been an unsuccessful speculator in Switzerland and America, coming to America in 1830.  He was charming, generous and persuaded the Mexican governor of California to grant him 50,000 acres east of San Francisco Bay.  There he built a huge farming, ranching and trading empire.

Sutter tried to keep the discovery a secret, but word got out in San Francisco where most of the 800 residents were skeptical at first.  It took several months for the idea to be even checked out. 

Sutter spent his final years asking Congress to reimburse him for land taken by prospectors.  He was never granted compensation and died in 1880 at the age of 77 a much less wealthy man that those that discovered gold.






Next time...Entrepreneur Sam Brannan
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  "On June 29, 1835, determined to win independence for the Mexican State of Texas, William Travis raises a volunteer army of 25 soldiers and prepares to liberate the city of Anahuac.

And That's a Wrap

General Stephen Kearny, commanding the US Army of the West, had earlier marched his 1600 men from Kansas to Santa Fe and captured the town without a struggle.  Kearny carried orders naming him Commander in California, instructing him to establish civil government as soon as possible.

Kearny believed the war was all but over, so he went westward with  only a small detachment of 100 men.  He entered California in late autumn of 1846.  Early in December, Kerney's men, who were exhausted from the long marches, were severely beaten by Californios near San Diego.  Kearney himself was wounded twice. 

In January 1847, Kearny joined forces with Robert Stockton and they 600 man army routed the defenders of Los Angeles in the final battle at La Mesa on the 8th of January.  The Californios fled north into the arms of John Charles Fremont where they surrendered on January 13, 1847.

All of California was now in American hands.

Next time...Mr. Polk's War
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Today in Pioneer History: On April 27, 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurs when the steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,100 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing all but 400 of those aboard.

Not the Way to Govern!

Archibald Gillespie, left to govern newly conquered Los Angeles in Robert Stockton's absence, made no effort to hid his contempt for Mexicans.  He succeeded to arouse the Californios (native Mexicans living in California) far more than appeal to their patriotism had ever done.  Within six weeks his rule had generated a true guerrilla movement.

On September 29, 1846 outgunned and outnumbered, Gillespie was forced to surrender to the insurgents.  Their leader had more chivalry and good sense than Gillespie himself.  The Mexicans granted the Americans their freedom with the promise that they would leave the providence.

Instead of keeping that promise, Gillespie joined forces with Navy Captain William Mervine at San Pedro Bay, and together they made a drive to retake Los Angeles.  On October 8, the Americans and guerillas clashed again.  Although outnumbered four to one, the Californios had one advantage - an ancient cannon hidden during the US occupation of Los Angeles.  Dragging that cannon from place to place, they tore huge holes in the American lines, sending them retreating. 

The Americans knew they had a war on their hands in the south.  They regrouped for another offensive.  Meanwhile a new force under General Stephen Watts Kearny was approaching California across the desert.

Next time...Kearny lends a hand
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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 24, 1800, the Library of Congress is established.  President John Adams approves legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress,” thus establishing the Library of Congress.

Easy Beginnings to the War

Rarely has a sovereign nation enjoyed such a short history as the Bear Flag Republic.  On July 7, John D Sloat, along with the US Pacific flotilla, having sailed into Monterey harbor, started the Mexican-American War by occupying the capital of California without a struggle.  The United States flag replaced the Bear Flag in northern California, and Americans believed it would be just that simple in the southern ports and the entire providence.

Sloat, who was in ill health and wanting to retire, soon handed over his command to Commodore Robert Stockton.  One of Stockton's first acts was to dispatch John Charles Fremont, along with his 150 men (known as the California Battalion), south to San Diego, which fell without resistance on July 29. 

Stockton, with as much interest in glory as Fremont, issued a proclamation on that same day that charged the Mexican militia with "scenes of rape, blood, and murder."  Stockton was not happy with what he saw as a weak General Castro, and if the Mexicans refused to fight a war, he would manufacture one.

Stockton, along with 360 sailors and marines, sailed to San Paulo Bay on August 6th.  He declined to negotiate with Castro.  A week later, Los Angeles fell to the Americans , again without resistance.  Castro, meanwhile, fled California for Mexico proper.

The entire coast of California was now in US hands.  Stockton returned to Monterey Bay and left Archibald Gillespie in charge, along with a 50 man garrison to govern Los Angeles.  Stockton could not have made a worse choice. 




Next time...no more "without a struggle"


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Today in Pioneer History:  "On April 20, 1842, the first detective story is published, The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe.

The Birth of the Bear Republic

John Charles Fremont appeared in California in December 1845, under the impression that he was resupplying his survey team.  Fremont's instincts told him that war between the US and Mexico was near and that new rewards would be given him if he could accomplish the conquest of California.  Since there was no war yet, he convinced Mexican officials of his peaceful intentions.

By Spring however, Fremont and his men were still there, had ignored an order to leave by the Mexican military governor, Jose Castro, and had actually constructed breastworks under the flying US Stars and Stripes.

Castro dispatched a military force and Fremont was finally urged to leave.  He and his men moved north slowly into Oregon where in May 1846, he was overtaken by US Marine Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie.  Once told of imminent war, Fremont was convinced it was his duty and his ambition to go back to California.

When Fremont entered the territory, the Americans settlers were ready to stand behind him.  His men entered the village of Sonoma, north of San Francisco on June 14.  They took the village's commander prisoner and over brandy arranged for Sonoma's surrender.

The Americans declared California an independent republic and raised a homemade flag for the new Bear Republic.  The nephew of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln actually designed the flag raised over Sonoma in 1848.

Next time...The Bear Republic is short lived
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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 17, 1970, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth.

Mexico Miscalulates!

President Polk knew that Mexico wanted war, and he also knew many in Congress didn't, so he made moves to insure that Mexico would strike first, insuring his support in Congress. 

First he sent General Zachery Taylor with 4000 men into the disputed area between the Nueces  and Rio Grande Rivers.  He had the American consul in Monterey arouse the American Californians in the patriotic love of liberty and independence.  Polk also advised U.S. Pacific fleet commander, John D. Sloan to possess and blockade California ports as he saw fit.  Meanwhile, Captain John Charles Fremont who was on a supposedly scientific mission, moved into California armed with 60 men. 

Mexican officials felt that their army was more than a match for the American forces and that the United States was too divided in their opinion of war to be effective.  These proved fatal miscalculations! 

On April 25, 1846, Mexican troops moved into the disputed Texas border and opened fire on Taylor's forces.  This gave Polk what he wanted and in his war message to Congress, he said, "Mexico has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil."  Congress agreed and war was declared.

There were dissenting opinions, however, as the South was eager for war which many antislavery forces thought proved that they didn't want to extend democracy as much as they wanted to extend "slavocracy" all the way to the Pacific Coast.  Nevertheless, we were at war with Mexico and time and other forces would solve the slavery question in the West.

Next time...The Conquest of California
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On This Day in Pioneer History:  "On April 13, 1866, Butch Cassidy, the last of the great western train-robbers, is born in Beaver, Utah Territory.Born Robert Leroy Parker, he was the son of Mormon parents who had answered Brigham Young’s call for young couples to help build communities of Latter Day Saints on the Utah frontier.

It's Just a Rumor!

In September 1842 while President Tyler was negotiating the purchase of California, Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, an American commander, was aboard his ship in Peruvian waters when he heard a rumor that the United States and Mexico were at war and Britain had claimed California.  Jones went northward immediately, reaching Monterey Bay on October 18.  He  landed a force and seized the capital, raising the Star and Stripes.

Two days later, Jones learned there was no war and the flag was hauled down, apologies were made, and Jones remained in Monterey 32 days protecting the Americans living there, after which he sailed off to Los Angeles. 

In 1845 Texas was annexed to the United States. Americans removed the President, Jose Joaquin Herrera and began preparing for war.  John Slidell, (the new) President Polk's emissary had been authorized to purchase New Mexico and California and settle all outstanding disputes with Mexico. 

All had been ignored. Mexico was in no mood for negotiations...they wanted war!

Next time...Mexico Miscalculates
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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 10, 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh.

Yankee Mischief

By the 1820s Boston's great mercantile companies had sent ships around the Cape Horn on a regular basis.  To evade Mexican tariffs, and secure trade monopolies, these Boston firms first placed their agents in California to deal with missionaries and ranchers.  From their headquarters in the tiny town of Los Angeles or the capital of Monterey, these "Bostons" as they were known, began to settle along the coast, developing relations with the Mexican community leaders in towns of not more than 3300 (in Los Angeles for example).

One of these Bostons was Abel Stearns (left photo) who arrived in 1829 via Mexico where he had obtained Mexican citizenship.  His dour, homely face earned him the nickname "Horseface" but that didn't keep him from becoming a wealthy hide merchant in LA, nor from marrying the 14 year old daughter of a powerful area family.  In 1846 Abel was working with the US Consul in Monterey, Thomas Larkin, who had been secretly instructed to foster a movement for California expansion by President Polk.

Larkin was a another New England born merchant who made a fortune in California as the owner of a Monterey flour mill.  As a sideline, he wrote florid descriptions of California's beauty and wealth for eastern newspapers.  Most Americans living in California in the 1830s and 1840s made it their job to write back east in hopes of setting off a migration west to join them.  Americans were slowly working their way into the communities of California territory with thoughts of it belonging to the United States...Mexico had other ideas.

Next time...Ceaseless Propaganda
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 21, 1877, Thomas Edison stumbled on one of his great inventions–the phonograph–while working on a way to record telephone communication at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Early California Missions

In the spring of 1769 a party of soldiers and settlers under Don Gaspar de Portola began a journey from Lower to Upper California.  Accompanying the expedition were a group of Franciscan monks led by Father Junipero  Serra. (The Jesuits were expelled by King Charles III of Spain in 1767 from Lower California)

After a tough six week journey the party reached present day San Diego and built a mission, San Diego de Alcala.  Early in 1770 Portola and Father Serra founded the mission of San Carlos Barromeo in Monterey.  Here Father Serra spent the remainder of his life until 1784, directing the establishment of religious communities. 

The Indians of the region were hunter gatherers and with the promise of safety and food, thousands came to the missions.  By 1821 there were 21 such missions which were staffed with detachments of soldiers for military protection.

With minimum money and manpower Spain had gained a foothold in California country but could she maintain her presence?  By 1820 the Spanish speaking population in the Southwest was less than 50,000.  The settlers felt less loyalty to Madrid because  of isolation and careless attitude of the Spanish authorities.  They became known as "New Mexicans."  Old Mexico overthrew Madrid rule in Mexico in 1821.  The "New Mexicans" didn't seem to care one way or another by that time.  They were a new breed who would eventually become Americans.

Next time...A day in Mission San Jose
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On this Day in Pioneer History: On June 16, 1884,  the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride.

One Man Out of Many

During the 1850s, the Walkers (Joe and Joel)  purchased land at $10 an acre, eventually owning a ranch called Manzanita with 1500 deeded acres in northern California.  Walker then sold his own ranch near Gilroy in 1855 and moved to Manzanita further north and used this ranch for his base the rest of his life. 

During this time he started for Arizona on an expedition of unknown purpose.  On the west side of Colorado he ran into a bit of trouble with the Mojave Indians.  During one skirmish, a man named Lyon was seriously injured.  Walker returned to Los Angeles for medical attention where Lyon died, the only man ever killed while following Captain Walker.  The details are lost to time, and there is no record of what actually transpired, but to lose a man was no doubt something Captain Joe felt deeply.

Next time...Failing Eyes

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This Day in History:  On December 22, 1884,  a central player in the violent Lincoln County War of 1878-81, the cattleman John Chisum dies at Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  (if you don't know the story of Billy the Kid and his part in the Lincoln County Wars, stayed tuned...)

Trouble in California

Somewhere between Utah and California the party split up with Walker taking the pack mules, furs and horses through Walker Pass,  and Fremont going through Oregon, both agreeing to meet up in California. Captain Walker's party had a good trip through the Sierra and was waiting on Fremont for almost a month.  Walker went north to find Fremont (who claimed it was Walker who got lost).

The Mexican authorities  allowed Fremont's expedition under the title "scientific expedition" even though Fremont had no orders to be in California at all.  Walker was there as a free trapper/trader. 

About this time, rumors were  circulating that the United States and Mexico would soon be at war.  There were some 500 American settlers in California at that time, with the Indian population about 7000.  Col. Jose Catro was the local military commander and decided Fremont's "scientific expedition" was really a United States spy mission.  He ordered Fremont out of California immediately and began gathering regular military troops to enforce his demand.  Did John Charles Fremont helped incite the war with Mexico?  History doesn't say but from the story here, it sure didn't help.

Next time...I Don't Think So

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This Day in History:  On October 13, 1909,  the Ballinger-Pinchot scandal erupts when Colliers magazine accuses Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, an appointee of President Taft,  of shady dealings in Alaskan coal lands. It is, in essence, a conflict rooted in contrasting ideas about how to best use and conserve western natural resources.